Gathering Husbands with a System in a Game Like World [BL]

”Alright guys, let’s wrap this up,” Kai said as he began descending from his former floating point. The large tree was decreasing in size and retracting slowly into the ground, roots pulling back into the earth with deep grinding sounds until the entire World Tree vanished like it had never been there.

Elias and Lucien followed him down, the glow around both of them fading until they looked almost normal again. The three of them landed at the edge of the ruined clearing. Dust still hung in the air. Adventurers who had been watching from a safe distance started murmuring louder now that the immediate threat of getting flattened had passed.

Lucien looked around in shock ”we attracted quite the crowd”

Kai rolled his eyes ”i mean...i don’t know what you guys thought would happen when you both went full haywire”

Elias scoffed ”it really is nothing special, a cute crowd would have sufficed but then again this is good. At least we know that an agent of the red Ledger is currently watching”

Kai sighed and brushed dirt off his coat and glanced around, still half-expecting another explosion. That was when he noticed the injured figure half-buried near a shattered trunk.

A young man with a cute, almost delicate face was sitting against a tree trunk, one arm clutched tightly to his side. Blood had soaked through the fabric of his sleeve and dripped onto the dirt. His dark hair was messy, sticking slightly to his forehead, and even with the clear pain on his expression there was still that unmistakable cuteness on his face.

Kai walked over without thinking twice.

”Hey. You okay?”

The young man looked up. For a second he just stared, eyes widening a fraction like he hadn’t expected anyone to approach him. Then his gaze locked onto Kai’s face and stayed there, unblinking.

Kai unaware, crouched down and reached for the injured arm.

”You’re bleeding pretty bad. Let me see.”

The young man didn’t pull away. Instead, while Kai carefully checked the wound, he spoke in a quiet, almost dazed voice.

”You are so beautiful.”

Kai froze for half a second, then let out a short, awkward laugh.

”Uh... thanks? I think. You’re hurt. That’s more important right now.”

Up close the guy really was cute. Soft features, pretty eyes, the kind of face that looked like it belonged on someone who should be reading books under a tree instead of bleeding in a destroyed forest. Kai found himself thinking the word ” adorable” before he could stop it. The contrast with the two walking natural disasters he had just pulled out of the sky was almost ridiculous.

He pressed down on the wound to slow the bleeding. The young man’s breath hitched, but he didn’t complain. He just kept staring at Kai like the rest of the world had gone quiet.

Then the System spoke.

[New individual detected.]

[Candidate 006: Ayan Bell.]

[Rank: B.]

[Affinity: Unstable.]

[Warning: Emotional response patterns show irregular fluctuation.]

Kai’s hands stopped moving.

For a full three seconds he just stared at the floating text in his vision, brain refusing to process it.

Candidate 006.

B-rank.

Cute-faced. Bleeding. Currently looking at him like he’d hung the moon.

The same System that had thrown SSS-rank monsters, a Chairman, and a Sword Sovereign at him had just casually labeled this soft-looking, injured stranger as the next husband candidate.

Kai’s eye twitched.

You’re joking.

[The System does not joke.]

He’s B-rank.

[Correct.]

What? He is so different from the others

[Also correct.]

And you’re telling me this is Candidate 006? The same list that has Elias , the chairman and Lucien on it?

[Correct. Candidate 006: Ayan Bell has been registered.]

Kai wanted to laugh. Or scream. Or both. Every previous candidate had arrived in his life like a natural disaster. Elias with his filthy mouth and lethal hands. Lucien with his plants, Rhydian as a beast sovereign. Aster with the weight of an entire underground organization. Even Caelum carried the kind of presence that made rooms go quiet.

And now the System expected him to accept that this adorable, prickly-looking guy who had just called him beautiful while bleeding was somehow on the same list.

The affinity is unstable, Kai pointed out internally, still pressing on the wound.

[Yes. Fluctuation range is abnormally wide. Recommend caution and further observation.]

Kai exhaled through his nose and forced his expression back to neutral. Outwardly he was still just a helpful adventurer treating an injury. Inwardly he was having a minor crisis.

Of course. Of course the next one would show up like this. Injured, cute. Saying something disarming with a straight face. The System really had no sense of pacing.

”You don’t have to bother,” Ayan muttered, voice quiet and a little defensive. ”I can manage.”

”Too bad,” Kai said, keeping his tone light. ”I’m bothering anyway.”

Ayan clicked his tongue and looked away, but he didn’t pull his arm back. His ears were slightly pink. Kai pretended not to notice.

Before he could ask anything else, raised voices cut across the clearing.

”By order of the Adventurer’s Guild, stand down!”

A group of uniformed Guild enforcers pushed through the crowd of watching adventurers, led by a stern-faced woman with a captain’s insignia. Behind her came several more officers and two people carrying restraint cuffs that glowed with suppression magic.

The captain’s eyes swept over the destruction, then locked onto Elias and Lucien.

”You two. The ones responsible for this mess. You’re under arrest for unauthorized large-scale combat within city-adjacent territory, excessive environmental destruction, and endangerment of registered adventurers.”

Elias raised an eyebrow, the picture of mild annoyance.

”We were outside the city limits.”

”Barely,” the captain replied flatly. ”And the shockwaves weren’t. You’re coming with us.”

Lucien’s expression remained calm, but his fingers tightened slightly around the staff he still held.

”Is this necessary?”

”Guild law is clear. High-rank combat that causes this level of collateral requires formal review. Resist and the charges get worse.”

Elias glanced at Kai, then at Lucien, and gave a small, irritated shrug.

”Looks like the performance had an encore we didn’t plan for.”

Kai stood up, still half-supporting Ayan.

”Captain, they weren’t actually trying to destroy anything. It was—”

”Save it for the report,” the captain cut in. ”Both of you, present your hands.”

Suppression cuffs locked around Elias’s and Lucien’s wrists with a dull magical hum. The glow around the metal flared once, dampening their residual energy signatures. Neither of them resisted, though Elias looked deeply annoyed and Lucien simply resigned.

As the enforcers started leading them away, Elias looked back over his shoulder at Kai.

”Don’t do anything stupid while we’re gone, Sugar.”

Lucien’s gaze lingered on Kai for a moment longer, before he was guided forward with the rest of the group.

The crowd parted to let the Guild team through. Conversations exploded in their wake. People were already arguing about what they had seen, how high the two fighters must have ranked, and whether the white-haired guy who flew up to stop them was insane or connected.

Kai stayed where he was, one hand still steadying the injured young man beside him. Ayan Bell. Candidate 006.

The System spoke again,.

[Candidate 006 affinity fluctuating. Current value unstable. Recommend caution.]

Kai looked down at Ayan. The younger man was trying to stand straighter, clearly annoyed at needing help, but his eyes kept drifting back to Kai’s face with that same intensity from earlier.

”Can you walk?” Kai asked.

Ayan’s voice came out quiet and reluctant, like he was irritated at himself for answering.

”I can manage. You don’t have to... hover.”

The word choice almost made Kai snort. Hover. Right.

”I’m not hovering. I’m making sure you don’t face-plant. Big difference.”

Ayan clicked his tongue again and looked away, ears still faintly pink. The contrast between the soft, cute face and the prickly attitude only made the whole situation feel more surreal.

Kai helped him take a few steps away from the broken trunk. Around them the ruined clearing was already filling with more Guild personnel and curious adventurers. Somewhere in the middle of the chaos, two SSS-rank Candidates were being marched off in cuffs, a massive World Tree had just disappeared back into the earth, and a new, unstable variable with pretty eyes was leaning slightly against Kai’s side.

Kai’s mind kept circling back to the System’s announcement.

Candidate 006.

B-rank.

Adorable.

Unstable affinity.

He had no idea what to do with any of it.

The day, he decided, had officially stopped making sense.

But at least it wasn’t boring.

He adjusted his grip on Ayan’s arm and started walking him toward the edge of the clearing, where the Guild medics were finally starting to set up. Behind them, the last of the dust settled over what used to be a forest, and the murmurs of the crowd followed them like a low wave.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, the System remained quiet, as if waiting to see what he would do with the newest name on the list.

Kai exhaled.

One crisis at a time.